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In a Vase on Monday: Always the Optimist…

This Monday, as I join Cathy once more at Rambling in the Garden in the fourth year of her lovely meme, I really wanted to use the vase my sister gave me just one more time before the winter sets in, but was I being just a little optimistic? After all, it is a large jug – 1.5 litres at least…

😀

Well, as those of you who join in each week will know, it is a constant surprise as to what we will find in our gardens and nearby hedgerows to put in a vase!

The Clematis tangutica seed heads were put to use again, along with the faithful Sedums (which are slowly collapsing, not at all gracefully), some Persicaria Red Dragon foliage and a single Scabiosa ochroleuca.

Until this morning the frost hadn’t quite got the last buddleia flowers – one yellow one in the picture above, and a couple of purple ones below…

The other purple flowers above are the Teucrium, along with some hedgerow snippets including Euonymus berries, and at the back some Bergenia leaves.

It was very cold outdoors yesterday (today even colder), so I moved the vase indoors to take a couple more photos and noticed how the light made the whole arrangement look more orange than pink. I rather like the effect.

A few sprigs of Miscanthus and a spent Spiraea flower were added to fill out the vase a bit more.

I also cut some Plumbago – the red foliage is lovely even after the flowers are gone. (On the right below)

And bottom right is a sprig of Oenothera.

I wonder what other bloggers have found in their gardens this week. Let’s go over to Cathy’s post and see who else has linked in with a vase today! 🙂

Have a great week, and don’t forget to look out at the supermoon tonight! 🙂

Grasses are a great addition to vases, especially at this time of year when autumn is waning into winter resulting in the leaching of colour from traditional flowering perennials. I keep a vase of dried grasses on my dining room sideboard to remind me of their constancy and eternal beauty.

I also have some dried grasses indoors, some from years back picked in a wild flower meadow! I may resort to using them for a vase in the middle of winter. Last year was so mild I didn’t need to use them. 🙂

Haven’t you done well to fill that vase? The last 3 pictures really show them off and their autumnal bountifulness – and make me realise I have some grasses I could have included in mine. There’s always next week though. Thanks for sharing

It looked a bit sparse at first and I had to go out for a second round to find something to fill it out a bit! But yes, I managed it! I still have lots of grasses which will probably appear next week too. 🙂

I have to admit it did look a bit sparse at first Kris, so I went out with my shears again and did another round of the garden to see what I could find to fill it out, and was pleasantly surprised… there is so much we don’t see at a first glance! 🙂

I covet the vase. It is beautiful as is the arrangement. I like the color difference in the photos, red is always a difficult color in my photos. The Sedum looks fantastic, one plant I could never grow, I think it needs to be in Europe.

I’ve got a golden Buddleia but it’s flowering over the field, rather than the garden, so we can’t see it unless we walk the hedgerows. That’s reminded me to go and take cuttings so we can have this lovely shrub back in the main garden. All the best. Karen

Courage is crowned with success! It´s a lovely arrangement. Even the change of colour under daylight and insight the house. Unfortunately I couldn´t see the supermoon as it was too cloudy – after nights with clear sky.

I can’t believe how many shades of red and magenta you have in your garden! The colors are magnificent, Cathy. It’s going to be hard to see this glorious display covered in snow soon, but I think all that deep cold must contribute to the vibrancy in the color each spring! What a beautiful arrangement this week!

Thank you Debra! I wonder if we will in fact get any snow this winter – last year was almost snow-free. It does usually get really cold at some point though, and it is then quite magical to think of all that energy below the ground, lying dormant ready to explode in spring. In winter I can never believe my garden will ever be green and lush again, and then it happens! 🙂